During my recent trip to Portland, my group and I obviously ate ALL THE THINGS. And a lot of us would begin taking pictures of our food before eating it. Some of us were packing some real photographic heat with crazy DSLRs and intimidating lenses and everything. As a joke, we started taking pictures of ourselves taking pictures of food. SO META.

We then submitted a couple of our pictures to this awesome tumblr called Pictures of Asians Taking Pictures of Food. Of course, our pictures made the cut...AND THEN...9gag took both our photos and made us famous. Our mockery is now being mocked.

Enjoy:

Our pictures are the middle two and I&#Array;m the one giving the thumbs up

At IGN, there's plenty of great content being constantly produced by our wiki community, but it's not always easy to figure out who all these unsung heroes are. Contributor of the Month is just one way to spotlight people who've demonstrated extraordinary dedication to a wiki (or multiple ones), and who is just a stellar community member overall. While anyone (including you!) can create and populate wikis with information, not everyone does. It takes an individual with both an eye for quality and a fiery passion for the subject matter. Every month many users gain our attention as well as the attention of the community, but only one gets voted in by the community to become that month's Contributor of the Month. Get to know the August Contributor of the Month: TMARama!

Stephanie: TMARama! Congrats on getting the nod for August’s Contributor of the Month. You’re an active fellow around these parts. How long have you been a member of IGN and when did you start becoming really involved?

TMARama: Thanks Steph! I've been kicking around IGN for probably about 7 or 8 years, but didn't make an account until 5 years ago. Even after I joined officially, I never really did much in terms of commenting, and I was never active on the boards. I didn't really start getting active until about 2 years shortly after MyIGN started up. At first, I never contemplated blogging because I just didn't think people would care what I had to say, but once I did decide to give blogging a try, I was pleasantly surprised to learn that it wasn't nearly as painful as I thought it might be, and people were surprisingly welcoming.

I agree that IGN folks are super welcoming once you give the community a chance.What are you favorite video game genres?

If I absolutely had to pick a couple of genres to label as my favourites, I'd probably choose FPS, RPGs, and adventure games. I can't say any single genre dominates my game collection, but those three are definitely well represented. Any time all three of genres start to get combined into a single game like in Fallout 3 or New Vegas, it's like Christmas morning for me, albeit a Christmas morning with entertaining bugs.

List your top five favorite games of ALL TIME.

Wow, you're really aren't easing me into these questions, huh? My top 5 games of all time in no particular order are A Link to the Past, Bioshock, Perfect Dark, Dead Space, and Phantasy Star Online. Even my top 5 can't seem to agree on a genre or two.

That is a fair list. It’s got a really good mix of games from different generations. Have you played Perfect Dark or Phantasy Star Online recently? How well do you think they would hold up to today’s standards?

I actually have played both recently. Perfect Dark doesn't hold up as well as fans would hope, but it's far better than how Goldeneye has aged. I haven't given Perfect Dark HD a try since I still have a working N64 cartridge but who knows, maybe at some point I'll try out the HD version on XBLA. Phantasy Star Online has actually aged extremely well and I still love it as much as I did when I first got the game. The gameplay is tight, the controls were never overly complex to begin with, and there's still a lot of fun to be had in hacking and slashing your way through the dungeons. I think I've dumped close to 200 hours into Episodes 1 and 2 with the first character I created thanks to the various difficulty levels in the game.

People play games for a variety of reasons beyond just being a form of entertainment. What do playing video games mean to you?

To me, on top of the obvious entertainment value, they serve a variety of purposes, which may explain why I'm attracted to so many different genres. Some games are just simple silly fun, others require problem solving, some have a deep and meaningful story that immerses you deep within the plot, others are great to play with friends and can be a bonding experience, and others still let you do whatever you want to do, whether negative or positive, without any actual ramifications. Let's be honest, who doesn't like driving over random civilians in GTA?

What would you say is your favorite console generation?

A year or two ago, I probably would've chosen the SNES era as my favourite with no questions asked because it really represented the golden age of platforming, there were RPGs aplenty, and developers were more concerned with gameplay and plot than with graphics. However, with all of the advances in online play, arcade titles, DLC, and the fact that this generation has brought gaming to a much larger base than ever (mainly thanks to the Wii and the huge library of casual titles) makes me give the edge to the current generation of consoles. While there are definitely some downsides to catering an entire console towards an untapped, casual market, suddenly more people than ever are discovering gaming and that's a great thing to help get rid of that gamer stereotype we all know and loathe.

Care to elaborate on the downsides you speak of?

The biggest one is that the library of games consists primarily of shovelware or really lackluster titles in an attempt to attract the attention of those people who have never really played games before. If you look at the library of games for the Wii vs the library of the 360 or PS3, the quality titles are far greater in number on the latter system. The other major downside is that any of the new IPs created for the casual console don't do very well, and it discourages developers from trying much on the console. Look at a game like MadWorld. It was an insanely fun game, albeit a little short, but it didn't sell nearly as well as it would've on the other consoles. If it was on the 360 or PS3, because there are far more gamers using the PS3 and 360 willing to try out new titles as well as mature ones. While the console worked out great for developers feeding casual gamers ports of online games, or mini-game collections that would appease a 20 minute craving, there was a lacking number of titles like Xenoblade Chronicles or Donkey Kong Country Returns.

You mention getting rid of the gamer stereotype that “we all know and loathe.” Don’t you think the stereotype is totally outdated?

The stereotype is completely outdated and couldn't be further from the truth at this point, but I still find an overwhelming majority of people who don't play games look at you differently if they learn you're a gamer. It's not as if learning that one detail changes anything about your personality, and any inteligent person is aware of this, but unfortunately people tend to either be afraid of things they know little about or look at them in a poor light. Personally, I don't see what differentiates gamers from people who spend a lot of time reading, or who watch a large number of movies, but that's just me.

Gamer RAAAAAAAAAAAAGE

When you’re not on IGN writing blogs and wikis or playing video games, what are your other hobbies?

I can be found working out at the gym, getting together with some friends around a couple of pitchers, playing some street hockey, cheering on the New Jersey Devils (whenever we're fortunate enough to have an NHL season... damn collective bargaining agreements), watching Law and Order: Special Victims Unit and Grimm, and trying to find some great new electronic music. I'm also about the start volunteering at the Distress Line in my city again which I've done before and found incredibly rewarding.

I noticed you write for a site called Analog Addiction. How would you explain to someone who doesn’t know a lick about the games industry what you do on that site or even on IGN?

Oooh, that one's a tough question, and yet I know it's something you guys probably deal with on a regular basis over at IGN. The simplest way I can try to explain iAnalog Addiction to people is being a budding journalist, but rather than writing pieces in the "Arts" or "Sports" section of the newspaper, I deal with the gaming world. As for IGN, I'm still trying to figure out how to explain that one to people. The minute you say you blog, more stereotypes pop into peoples' heads and picture you as some obese person crouching in a dark basement over a computer and lacking any and all social skills. Everyone reading this knows this isn't the case, but unfortunately the people who aren't gamers or somewhat tech-savvy don't always understand that. If you have any advice on how to explain it, I'm open to recommendations!

“You wouldn’t understand” while rubbing your chin sagely usually is my response. And then people roll their eyes and just stop talking to me. It works. Speaking of tech: Android or iPhone?

Android, no contest. I actually just got my first smartphone last week and I went with the Samsung Galaxy SIII. iPhones are kind of nice, but I can't stand dealing with Apple stores. When you walk into one of them, you starting choking on eau de pompous jackass.

Tell me about one of your weird habits? Nothing too weird, though. An example I've seen is someone arranging all the Skittle candies in their respective corners by color and then eating only the red ones.

Something weird, something weird... When I'm lounging around the house, I'm almost always wearing basketball shorts and a t-shirt or muscle shirt regardless of season or temperature. That counts as weird, right? It might just be because I'm Canadian, but who knows.

(RANDOM PICTURE INSERTED) Brony + Fry = ...Bronry...?

What about an odd (OCD, if you will) behavior related to gaming? Like maybe you have to turn left at least 5 times in an hour or you won’t feel right (see what I did there?).

I can't think of anything like that, although I do like to explore every nook and cranny of a game, especially in the case of a game like Fallout or Borderlands. If I know which way I'm supposed to be headed in order to complete a mission, I'll purposely follow a different route in order to explore and discover as much as possible.

Would you go without food or without video games?

Going without food would definitely be a little tougher, although in the event of marathon gaming, it can seem like I'm fasting. I know it seems like a crazy concept, but I have to choose self-preservation over enjoyment.

I’d have to agree. Playing games is no fun when your head is swimming with images of bacon. On the topic of bacon, what is the craziest thing you’ve ever eaten?

Bacon? ....... Sorry, I was busy salivating. I've actually eaten some really different things before, although I suppose depending on where in the world you go, they might not be viewed as weird. I've had alligator, shark, rabbit, escargot, and swordfish and I actually really enjoyed all of them. I think the award for craziest thing ever has to be a two-way tie between a 40 oz steak simply because of size, and a burger consisting of two 1lb patties, cheese, and pulled pork.

Do you generally do anything else while you game? Maybe eat, drink, or listen to music?

The only time I'll listen to music while gaming is if I'm playing online multiplayer. Sure, if I'm playing an FPS game, it prevents me from hearing some of the audio cues about where the action is, but there's just something epic about mowing down a couple of people in rapid succession while listening to "Bodies" by Drowning Pool. I'll usually have some kind of drink by me while I'm gaming, but it's usually just a big glass of water.

So health conscious! I love it! Hey, thanks for taking the time to talk to me about yourself while still interacting with the community and kicking ass on the Darksiders 2 wiki.

See someone doing awesome work? Whether it be wikis, blogs, or whatever, tell me who you think has been awesome. I'd like to give the proper recognition these folks deserve! Contact me at community@ign.com for concerns, nominations, and whatever other thoughts are swimming around in your head.